China has been using a “historical lie” to insist on its claim over the whole South China Sea, and ancient Chinese maps never claimed the area, including the disputed Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, as Chinese territory, according to a senior Supreme Court justice.
In a recent talk at the De La Salle University, titled “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Supreme Court Associate Justice J. Antonio Carpio noted China has used its 9-dashed line argument to claim the whole South China Sea as its territory, even though “there is nothing “historical” or “right” about China’s 9-dashed line claim.”
Carpio presented several ancient Chinese maps, some dating as far back as 960 AD, which showed that China’s territory reached only as far south as Hainan island.
“Since the start of the Song Dynasty in 960 AD until the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, a period of 952 years or almost a millennium, the southernmost territory of China has always been Hainan Island based on all official and unofficial maps of China,” said Carpio. "Even after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, the Chinese government’s constitutions from 1912 to 1946 “consistently declared that the territory of the Republic of China remained the same as the Qing Empire.”
Even in a September 1932 Note Verbale to France, wherein Beijing protested the French occupation of the Paracel Islands, “China has been telling the world that its southernmost border was Hainan Island.”
Not historical facts, but lies
The 9-dashed line claim of China, Carpio emphasized, “is based on not historical facts but on historical lies.”
China had earlier invited various groups to look into historical claims by examining the ancient maps of China made by Chinese, ancient maps made by foreigners, and ancient maps of the Philippines made by Filipinos and westerners.
“All these ancient maps show that since the first Chinese maps appeared, the southernmost territory of China has always been Hainan Island, with its ancient names being Zhuya, then Qiongya and thereafter Qiongzhou,” Carpio explained, “Hainan Island was for centuries a part of Guangdong Province until 1988 when it became a separate province.”
Based on the same ancient maps, he said the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal never appeared in any Chinese dynasty maps. The Spratlys are more than 600 nautical miles from Hainan Island and Scarborough Shoal is 500 nautical miles – “both are at the other end of the South China Sea.”
On the other hand, numerous ancient maps, made by both Westerners and Filipinos form 1636 to 1940, “consistenly show that Scarborough Shoal… has always been part of Philippine territory,’ Carpio said. “Scarborough Shoal has never appeared in a single ancient Chinese map throughout the long history of China.”
China had insisted that Scarborough Shoal is Nanhai Island, where Chinese explorer Guo Shoujing built a celestial observatory in the year 1279, but Carpio described this as a “double lie.” Carpio said in 1982, China itself officially declared that Nanhia Island was in the Paracel Islands – more than 380 nautical miles away from Scarborough Shoal.
Carpio argued it is physically impossible to build an observatory on Scarborough Shoal “when it was just a rock, with no vegetation and did not even have enough space to accommodate an expedition party.”
“It is quite ridiculous to claim that the famous Chinese astronomer-engineer -mathematician would visit and write for posterity about a few barren rocks that barely protruded above water at high tide,” he quipped, adding that there is no historical record of a Chinese expedition to Scarborough Shoal.
“In contrast, the Spaniards and the Americans extensively surveyed Scarborough Shoal during the time they were the colonial powers in the Philippines,” he added. “China has no historical link whatsoever to Scarborough Shoal.”
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/88736/historical-lie--spratlys-scarborough-shoal-not-in-chinas-ancient-maps---justice-carpio
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.